The Long Gun

The loud, chest thumping beat of the blaring disco music was irritating. That and the glare from the intense lights illuminating the stage areas deadened my senses after awhile. The only saving grace with this place was the group of beautiful, scantily clad young Thai ladies dancing on the stages and the ice cold beer that the bar served. The "Long Gun" must have been the third or fourth bar that we had visited this evening as we slowly worked our way down the row of bars and night clubs that lined the middle street of Soy Cowboy; one of the prominent red light districts in Bangkok.

I had originally come to Bangkok with four other guys from Tokyo last week. They were all ex-pats who were working in Japan for American owned companies. From what they told me, they took these R&R trips to Bangkok about two or three times a year. They basically partied a lot and got laid as many times as they could. Something that they could not do in Japan where a pristine and proper image was very important. Here in Bangkok, no one knew who they were so they partied hard.

I had been in Tokyo visiting a friend of mine who happened to be one of the four. And he invited me to tag along as I didn't have anything better to do. I had just sold my business and my home back in Nevada and had made a nice little bundle. Not enough to consider myself filthy rich, but more than enough to be able to take a very extended vacation while I thought about what to do next with my life.

So here I was in Bangkok wondering what the heck I was doing in a bar with a bunch of half drunk wannabe studs that were doing their best to get laid every day. In a way it was kind of anti-climactic. I mean, the girls that worked the bars were there to earn as much as they could with every opportunity. And the fastest way they earned their bucks was to get someone to buy their pussy from the bar. Yeah. That's what you'd have to do if you wanted their pussy. Pay the bar what they called a bar fine, then you pay the girl whatever you were willing to pay and what she was willing to accept. So getting laid wasn't a question. It was just a question of how much and with which bar girl.

I had heard all the stories from my Tokyo buddy about his prior trips. His basic message was to make sure you used condoms. No telling what you might catch. And leave your wallet in your hotel safe and just carry cash around. That way, when you run out of money, you're not tempted to use your charge cards. Plus, it's very hard to get ripped off when you aren't carrying your wallet. He knew the risks but he still indulged and he kept coming back. Not very bright if you ask me.

I tagged along with the group and had a beer or two. But that was about it. I mean, the girls were very pretty and sexy looking, but they were just after your bucks and most of the guys just wanted to get their rocks off. The guys should have just stayed home, watched a good porno, and masturbated or looked up an escort. That would have been cheaper and safer. I couldn't relate to banging a working girl in a Thai bar. Just wasn't me.

Yeah the girls were very pretty and several of them spoke passable English. But they were after one thing and as soon as they figured out that I wasn't interested in paying their bar fine, they were off to find greener pastures. I wasn't about to risk the family jewels just to satisfy my biological urgings.

So there we were in the Long Gun with two of our group of five already gone back to their hotel rooms with their dates for the evening or the hour. I had already told my friend not to worry about me. That I would find my way back to the hotel when I got tired of drinking and watching the scenery. He took off shortly thereafter with a very pretty bar girl in tow as well. And it looked as if the other guy was in the process of paying his bar fine so he would be leaving with his date shortly. So I left the booth that we had occupied in front of one of the stages, and found a seat at one end of the bar where the music wasn't as loud and the lights less bothersome. And I sat there enjoying my beer and watching the girls as they danced around in their skimpy outfits; attempting to attract a suitor for the evening.

"You want beer?" the bartendress asked? She was making sure that those of us at the bar were fixed with drinks.

I had just a swallow or two left in my bottle so I told her, "sounds like a good idea." as I held it up so she could see the label on the bottle.

"You work here a long time?" I asked as she placed the fresh bottle of beer in front of me.

"Too long." She answered. "Is ok. Pay lousy. Owner no good. Ok for now." She smiled. Probably a line that she gave anyone who asked. Who knows ... maybe she's the owner.

I grabbed my newly opened beer, took a pull at it then set it back down.

"You want girl?" she asked.

I shook my head.

"You want boy?" she smiled.

"No way." I laughed. I had heard about the lady-boys that could be found in Thailand and I definitely don't have any inclination to swing that way.

"Ok. I just ask." She replied. "You want eat? We make food."

"Nah. I'm fine, thanks. I'll just have my beer and enjoy the scenery."

It was about three or four minutes later that they changed out the girls who were on stage dancing about in their skimpy outfits, trying to get guys to drop a couple of bucks to see some skin or to buy them a drink when they got off the stage. As soon as the girls left the stage, they made a bee line to the booths and tables, trying to interest a patron to buy them a drink, then perhaps take them out for the evening. A couple of the girls even made it back to the bar to see if they could get the attention of those of us who were avoiding the action at the tables. And one of them eventually found her way over to me.

"You hiding here?" she smiled as she sauntered up to me. "You buy me drink?"

"Sure, but only if it's a real drink." I replied knowing that often the girls would drink tea-water to try to keep sober yet still charge us as if they were actually drinking something worthwhile.

She gestured to the bartendress and a highball glass quickly appeared. Before she could pick it up, I did and took a quick sip; tea water.

"I told you only if it's a real drink. No tea water." I figured that it wasn't worth the hassle so I stood up and gestured to the bartendress for my tab.

The girl grabbed my hand, "what you want? You no want bar girl?"

"I'm not interested in a quick fuck. Ok?"

She laughed. "Want you want then? Most man want fuck then new girl. What you want?"

I thought about what she asked and couldn't come up with an answer. I shook my head, "don't mind fucking but a quick fuck isn't what I had in mind."

She laughed. "Ok Joe. You come find me if you want fuck. But I want quick fuck. I want make money. Ok?" and with that she left for greener pastures. I'm guessing that their basic strategy was to fuck as many guys as they could every night. Made my skin crawl when I thought about it. That was disgusting. No way I'd sacrifice my dick for that.

The bartendress came back to see if I wanted another beer. I waved her off as I had more than half my beer left. But that bar girl's question kept rattling around in my head causing me to wonder, what did I want? Let alone the sex part, why was I here in Bangkok besides just tagging along with my friend? Was it that I was just bored shitless, or was there another reason? And then it dawned on me. I was lonely. I had been lonely for a long time. I came to Bangkok with my friend because I had nowhere else to go and nothing else to do.

I had been recruited to work for a Fortune 500 company as soon as the ink was dry on my diploma. They liked what they saw in me and fast tracked my career with them. But after four or five years of the constant pressure and endless demands I crashed and burned; both physically and mentally. Too many long hours; too many endless weeks; too many hotel rooms; too many fast food meals on the run. I was overweight, always tired, and couldn't run a hundred yards even if my life depended on it. Whatever relationships I had with women tended to be short term as the demands of my job always came before them.

Money wasn't an issue. Heck, they compensated me well for the work I did. And since there wasn't much free time to spend it, I had managed to put most of it away. But I wasn't happy. In fact, I think I was depressed although I must have been pretty good about not showing it.

So I had enough of that life and I quit. I just turned in my resignation and quit. Surprised a bunch of people including my boss at the time. But I needed a change in scenery. I spent about a month trying to get healthy; eat better, get more sleep, lose weight and restore some muscle tone. Then I got bored. And as if I had forgotten all about the burnout with my prior career, I plunged right back in and started up a business of my own.

Thinking back on it, I think I started the business with the thought that if I owned it, I could control the amount of time that I would have to devote to it. In other words, I wouldn't end up having to slave away trying to meet someone else's expectations.

Ha ha! All of you out there who own a business will know that it's much worse if you are the owner! And did I find that out in spades. Stupid and naïve. Yep. If you want your business to be successful, you become a slave to it. By the time I got it up and running and making good money, another four or five years had passed and I was just as overweight, tired and out of shape as I was with my former job. The difference was that I was ten years older, a little richer, but tired and burned out and alone... again.

I would work from dawn to past dinner and by the time I got home, I just wanted to take a shower and sleep. And that was my normal day. The monotony of the rat race that I was in hit me square in the face one day when I was waiting for a plane ride out to visit a client. I was standing in line at the gate behind a middle-aged couple. You could tell that they had been together for a lot more than a year or two. The easy banter between them and frequent touches made me envious of what they had and what I didn't.

That Thai bar girl's question brought everything together for me. What did I want? I was lonely. I had been lonely for a long time. I craved for companionship. I wanted someone to share my life with. Like that couple at the airport. I wanted what they had. Not a quick fuck that the bar girl offered. I wanted someone to love me as well as someone that I could love. Someone to hug me as well as someone that I could hug. Someone who would know when I was happy or sad. Someone that I could share my life's ups and downs with. I finished my beer and returned to my hotel.

I slept in the next day and woke up just before lunch. I had no idea where the rest of the guys were. But if they were up, they were probably out prowling for more pussy. I could care less. I wondered why I had agreed to come with them to Thailand in the first place. So, after taking a shower and grabbing lunch, I decided to play tourist and did a little sightseeing in the afternoon.

I found out that Bangkok is full of interesting and historical places of interest. That afternoon I took one of those motorized rickshaws over to the floating market and played tourist. It was interesting to see the wide variety of things that were available. Basically anything and everything; from live chickens to beer, to microwave ovens and HDTV's, to computers and vegetables. I even saw a floating pharmacy that sold over the counter meds along with a lot of local remedies.

I had dinner at the floating market in one of the many open air food stalls that dotted the area. The food was good and spicy. I enjoyed it along with a glass of lemon grass tea. It was filling and refreshing.

I got back to the hotel in the late evening and took a shower to wash the grime of the day away. As I was dressing I decided to go back to the Long Gun and have a beer or two. The guys from Japan were long gone; apparently trolling the next convenient bar for their dates for the evening.

As I walked through the door, I was again assaulted by the loud blaring music, flashing lights, and the smoke of too many cigarettes. And the scantily clad bar girls were just as enticing as the night before, prancing on stage in their micro-skirts.

I made my way over to the bar and took a seat. The bartendress remembered me from the night before and brought me a beer before I could even ask.

"You ok Joe?" she asked.

"Yeah. Thanks for the beer."

" You want anything Joe? Eat? Girl?"

I laughed. "No, I just had my dinner and I'll pass on the bar girl. I'm just on vacation trying to relax. Taking a break from everything. I just want to relax and enjoy life a bit."

She smiled. "You no want hassle then?"

"Yeah, sometimes bar girls can make things more complicated then things should be."

"Ok, you stay this corner of bar." And she moved me down to a far corner of the bar. Not so far that I couldn't see the girls doing their thing on the stages, but far enough away so that I wouldn't attract anyone's attention. Plus there was a nice breeze that blew into the bar from that corner. I was very cool with this.

I nodded my approval to her and raised my beer bottle and tipped it towards her in salute. She smiled back at me and then resumed filling drink orders.

I stayed in that corner for the rest of the evening, watching the girls flirt with every potential john that walked in the door. All it took was a farang (as in foreigner) to flash a little US or Euro currency and the games were on. One or more bar girls would converge on the farang and it was almost a foregone conclusion that someone's bar fine was going to be paid in short order.

It actually got a little silly after awhile. I was betting $1's with Som, the bartendress, (we were on first name terms now) which of the girls would have their johns pay their bar fines. I was down $10 before I knew it. For some reason Som always correctly guessed which girls were the quickest.

"What is your secret?" I asked her. "How do you know which bar girl is going to score with her john? And that quickly? How do you do it?"

"Is simple. No secret. You don't know Peter?" (yeah, that's my name. We had introduced ourselves earlier).

"Know what?"

"Look for girl with little clothes. She show her titties and farang have no chance." She laughed.

I laughed. Ok, a lot of us guys think with our dicks. Show us some skin and our interest (and our dicks) perk up! I guess some of us are really shallow. But I was trying not to be that way. Hence my seat at the far corner of the bar.

After that revelation I was almost able to match Som girl for girl when it came to figuring out who would score next with her john. I just kept watching the girls to see who had the lowest cut blouse or who was wearing a really short skirt. Both Som and I saw one of the girls sit on a guy's leg and rubbed her crotch slowly against his leg. Bingo! Bar fine paid! It was funny and embarrassing at the same time, realizing how shallow we guys can be at times.

So anyway, Som and I were trading dollars until a conservatively dressed girl got her John to pay her bar fine in record time. That stumped me. She didn't have any cleavage showing and her skirt wasn't that short.

"What the hell?" I asked out loud. "She's not showing much skin."

Som laughed. "I think she let him feel her pussy. Maybe she don't have panty."

At some point in time, I started to feel sorry for the johns that were being picked up by the girls. They really didn't have a chance in hell to keep their cash in their wallets.

It was getting really late in the evening, actually early morning ... Say around 3am or so, and Som was starting to get ready to shut down the bar. I closed up my tab and was set to head back to the hotel when she asked, "you hungry? Want eat?"

I figured why not, "sounds like a good idea."

"Ok, I close bar then we go eat."

She got her things from behind the bar and locked the place up. "Come, we eat. I know place have good food. Not too spicy."

Som led me down the street to a small open air food stand that was typical of the many small eateries in the area; little more than a table top charcoal grill and stove with a couple of small tables and chairs set up around it. I was amazed that it was still open, but then again, when you consider the number of people who were leaving the bars looking for a quick meal before going home, I figured I shouldn't be surprised. Som ordered a couple of dishes and two beers for us as I grabbed one of the small tables for us to sit on. The food was good and the company just as good.

"So you come vacation Bangkok? First time?"

I smiled, "yeah, my friends from Tokyo come here a lot and they got me to come along this time. And yes, it's my first trip here."

"You like so far?"

"Yeah, I like the people a lot."

"People? You come Thailand because you like people?" She seemed to be amused by my remark and broke out with laughter.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"Most farang come for easy pussy." Som continued to laugh between her remarks.

"Well, that would be my friends from Tokyo. They just wanted to party and get some pussy." I admitted.

"But you like Thai people?" Som laughed again.

"Well, yeah." I laughed with her, "To me, Thai people make this place very appealing."

"A-pee-ling? What mean?"

"Means that it makes this place very likeable. Without its people, Bangkok is just like another large Asian city. But the way you people care about others makes a big difference... at least to me."

"Ok. I understand now. To me, I here all time so I not know how people are other place. To me all people I know is here."

"Well, everyone that I've met so far here in Thailand, have been very nice and polite. Rarely have I heard an unkind word."

"Oh, you not hear because you don't know Thai words!" she laughed.

"Ok, you got me there. I don't speak a word of Thai so maybe I'm wrong. But I have really enjoyed my stay so far."

"I glad you like Thai people. Make me happy inside."

"You're welcome."

"But Peter. You lonely. Yes?"

I sat there wondering if she had ESP. The look on my face must have confirmed it for her.

"You no come with friends. You no want bar girl. You lonely."

"Ok. You're right. Yeah. Been that way a long time."

"So why not go with bar girl. That way you have good fuck."

"Perhaps, but then I'd still be lonely afterwards. And I don't think the sex would be good if I didn't know the girl."

"You want I find good girl for you? Not bar girl."

I chuckled. "Thank you Som, but no, you don't need to do that. I think I'll just sit back and relax. Don't worry about me."

So we finished eating and parted company for the evening. I went back to my hotel, took a shower and crashed. I woke up in the early afternoon and did a little more sightseeing. This time, I took a guided tour of several temples in the area. They were amazing to see, considering how old they were and the cultural and religious heritage that they represented.

Later that night I made my way back to the Long Gun and by the time I entered the bar and made my way through the crowd, Som had seen me walk in and had an opened beer for me in front of the seat that she had placed me at the night before. She smiled at me as she continued to go about opening beers and serving drinks.

About an hour or so later, a very pretty and young Thai girl took a seat next to me and smiled at me before waving to Som. Som came over and they hugged over the top of the bar.

Som leaned over the bar and told me, "This Fa. She bar girl, but new girl. You talk with Fa. I don't think this place good for her."